Several popular sports require the use of specific equipment in order to play or perform the sport. And quite often, the necessary equipment has a handle for the player to grip in order to manipulate the equipment. This type of equipment is commonly used to strike, launch, or catch a ball. Examples of such equipment include racquets, clubs, sticks, and bats, used in sports such as tennis, golf, lacrosse, and baseball, respectively.
Live coaching, training, or instruction by a qualified expert in techniques used to play or perform a particular sport is widely accepted as one of the best ways to learn a sport. While instruction in the presence of a coach or trainer is generally preferable, it is not available at all times. Quite often a player of a given sport must train on his or her own in between sessions spent with the coach. In such cases, a player is responsible for his or her own training.
A variety of tools are available for an individual player to engage in self-training in a sport. Books, videos, and specially designed apparatuses, can provide useful instruction and guidance to a player learning to play or perform a sport. But these tools have their limitations. For instance, when a player is reading a book or watching a video to gain instruction in a sport, the player is not actively practicing the sport, and thus the instructive material gleaned from the book or video may not be learned or remembered during actual physical play or performance of the sport. This is usually the product of a lapse in time between when the book was read or the video was watched, and when the sport is played or performed. And while use of a specialized training apparatus can be effective in developing play or performance techniques, practicing with a training apparatus does not always result in improved muscle or cognitive memory and corresponding better performance, when in subsequent play or performance the training apparatus is not used.
There is a need for an individualized self-training system for instructing in the play or performance of a sport that can also improve the physical actualization of learned or memorized instructive concepts during play or performance of the sport.